Compare And Contrast Realism And Operationalism

Essentialism is the idea that only good theories are those that give the ultimate explanation for phenomena in terms of their underlying essences. Operationism is the idea that concepts in scientific theories must in some way be grounded in observable events that can be measured. This idea removes all feelings and intuitions of a particular individual because it is not replicable by others. Removing the feelings from an experiment allows the experiment to be tested by anyone who can carry out the measures. Scientists are operationalists because they do not attempt to answer the “ultimate” questions of the universe. Essentialists will argue over the meaning of a word, whereas operationalists believe arguing over a word gets in the way of the matters of the substance. Operationalists tend to change the meanings of words during a study, because the word is not as important as the overall experiment. Essentialists can be based on personal bias because they are searching for the ultimate questions of the universe, but operationalists cannot be biased during research because it can mess up the experiments data. Essentialism …show more content…
For example, in the U.S. the first floor means the ground floor, but in Europe it means the level above the ground floor. Football in Europe means soccer, but in the U.S. it means the actual American sport, football. A biscuit in the U.S. is the flaky roll we would typically eat in the mornings, but in Europe a biscuit is a cookie. Similarly, chips in the U.S. are the crunchy snack such as Doritos or Cheetos, but in Europe chips are French fries. Pants in the United States refers to bottoms we wear, and in Europe pants means underwear. If you order an entrée in Australia you are really ordering an appetizer, but if you order an entrée in the United States you will order the main meal. Most of these terms are very common, but they have very different meanings in different